IACS Welcomes Professor Jackie Lee Weissman to Core Faculty

Weissman was selected after a joint search with the Department of Ecology and Evolution. Blending computational approaches with traditional biology, and a commitment to mentoring, the interdisciplinary Institute for Advanced Computational Science is proud to welcome Assistant Professor Weissman to the Core Faculty.

In the quiet forests of the Catskill Mountains, Jackie Lee Weissman, a curious young mind, spent hours exploring the wonders of nature, lifting rocks to uncover hidden creatures and marveling at the richness of the ecosystem around. Those early encounters with the natural world sparked a passion for science that would lead to groundbreaking work in microbial genomics.

Weissman’s decision to join Stony Brook University in September 2024 was driven by a strong connection to New York and the unique opportunities the university offers. Stony Brook’s reputation as one of New York’s top public universities added to the appeal. “It’s exciting to be at an institution that values affordable education and the ability of students to be upwardly mobile, while also having impactful research and a long history of great people studying marine microbes,” she added. 

Long Island’s natural beauty and its ecosystems further fuelled the excitement of joining the university. “You have these beautiful salt marshes, wetlands that have interesting microbial dynamics going on in them all along Long Island. I’m excited to explore that more,” she said. 

Weissman’s work in microbial genomics found a perfect home within the Institute of Advanced Computational Science (IACS). “The IACS has a ton of advantages. One of them is that I use supercomputers constantly in my research. We're dealing with really large datasets where we’re taking lots of DNA sequencing information from many different environments and synthesizing them. That requires some large computers, and IACS has those computers for us,” she said. 

The interdisciplinary environment at IACS has also proven to be a unique strength for Weissman’s research. “The work I do is inherently interdisciplinary. I combine a lot of computational approaches with traditional biology, and we try to think about new ways of looking at biological problems using quantitative approaches,” said Weissman. “It’s great to be talking to biologists but also to people who are trying to apply these quantitative approaches across fields. IACS is unique in that you have all these scientists from different disciplines collaborating, interacting, trying to find commonalities across their fields,” she added. 

Weissman’s enthusiasm for the computational resources at IACS is clear in her daily work. “I use the SeaWulf Cluster daily. We're always dealing with these massive data sets that require a ton of computing power, and nothing that we do would be possible without those supercomputers,” she said. “I’ve also used Ookami for some public outreach projects recently,” she added, reflecting on her innovative use of these tools and expressing appreciation for the talented and responsive technical support team that maintains these systems.

Weissman’s journey into the world of science began with an unexpected twist during her college years. “A math professor sort of pushed me into being a math major in college by sort of twisting my arm, which was good,” Weissman recalled with a smile. Although it wasn’t her initial plan, she quickly grew to enjoy math, especially as she began to see its connection to biology. “I became interested in this idea of how we blend math and biology. When I was an undergraduate, that was very vague to me.” 

Her undergraduate years at Bard College in upstate NY, where she majored in Mathematics and Biology, were spent delving into modeling different biological systems. This culminated in a thesis that explored animal behavior. “I did my undergraduate thesis on butterfly movement and got excited about studying movement, how animals remember things, and how memory evolves,” Weissman said. These early experiences laid the groundwork for her next academic steps. “I started my PhD at the University of Maryland thinking that's what I would do for my research career,” she said. 

However, her focus shifted when she encountered a groundbreaking discovery in the microbial world. “Very quickly, I got interested in this new discovery in microbiology called CRISPR. It’s this form of adaptive immunity in bacteria that helps them fight against viruses that are constantly trying to infect them in the environment. “It allows them to remember past fights and use that to fight the viruses better in the future. It was a nice system to model how memory evolves,” she said.

Although she had no formal background in microbiology, Weissman’s curiosity led her to shift her focus. “I … very quickly came to love these tiny ecosystems that sort of drive so much of what's around us. I shifted dramatically during my PhD and eventually did a postdoc in marine sciences looking at bacteria in the ocean,” Weissman said. 

Weissman also brings a passion for mentorship, and is evident in her approach to working with students at all levels. “To be a good mentor, you need to understand what your students want out of the experience and where they’re starting. Every mentee is unique and has their own goals and questions. My job is to help them figure out what questions excite them and how they can best answer them,” she said.

“When someone comes into the lab, I usually give them a starter project to show them how the tools work. I want to move someone towards asking their own questions quickly. Building independence gradually for students is important, some students might want to get an industry job as quickly as possible, and I help them figure out how to do that,” she said. 

Weissman also values creating a collaborative learning environment. “Teaching is fun when students can show me things I haven’t learned before. A teaching environment should be one in which everyone is learning together. It shouldn’t be a one-way path where the professor gives knowledge to students. It should be multi-directional,” she added.

“I’m generally a pretty optimistic person, and I think that’s helpful in science because being a scientist often means facing disappointment. Your idea didn’t work, your grant didn’t get accepted, or your paper got bad reviews. This happens every day. You try to find something new and learn something new, and that doesn’t always work because you’re pushing boundaries every day,” she said, emphasizing the importance of embracing the journey, not just the destination.

She also finds motivation in the concept of sideways progress. “My advisor liked to talk about sideways progress, where you didn’t solve a problem but learned a lot of ways not to solve it, which is helpful because you know what doesn’t work.” Weissman also emphasizes the importance of balance. “There's this image of the scientist working late, but I get eight hours of sleep. If I’m not going to solve something by 9 p.m., it’s not going to be solved,” she said, underscoring her belief in taking breaks and practicing self-compassion. 

As a concluding thought, Weissman encouraged us to reflect on our lives in relation to bacteria. “There are bacteria all around you and inside of you, and most of them have no direct impact on your life. There are good bacteria, bad bacteria, and then just a lot of bacteria. Even good and bad bacteria aren’t always entirely good or bad. These beautiful, complex microbial ecosystems exist everywhere, unseen, yet they are crucial for sustaining the life we observe around us,” she said.

 

-Aisha Nasara Sulemana